mgo.licio.us

"The face of the operation is Briatore (referred to exclusively in the film by his colleagues and angry, chanting detractors as "Flavio"), an anthropomorphic radish who spends most of his time at QPR plotting to fire all of the managers."

At press time, Harbaugh had sent Michigan’s athletic department an envelope containing a heavily annotated seating chart, a list of the 63,000 seat views he had found unsatisfactory, and a glowing 70-page report on section 25, row 12, seat 9, which he claimed is “exactly what the great sport of football is all about.”

“True loyalty is that quality of service that grows under adversity and expands in defeat. Any street urchin can shout applause in victory, but it takes character to stand fast in defeat. One is noise — the other, loyalty.”

And it's evolving news. I'm not much of a "posted already" cop anyway, unless it was like two posts down, and the exact same info. Just posted link to show some discussion about the possibility.....there was an older thread too talking candidates, that probably said more about what people thought about the new guy when they were ALL just candidates.

Bakich has a sports science degree, so perhaps you're thinking of the position as a Patient Services Assistant at the MedSport location in Dominos Farms, or maybe it was a similar position at the Sports Medicine Institute which is part of the University of Minnesota?

"Funny isn't it, how naughty dentists always make that one fatal mistake."

Bakich has had surprisingly good success on the recruiting trail given that Maryland is a baseball school like Nebraska is a basketball school, but that never translated into much success in the standings. Maryland was actually quite the media darling early this year as they poked their head into some of the top 25 ratings, but they fell flat in a big way and missed the ACC tourney by several games.

That said, you really just can't win at Maryland. Bakich preached instant expectations, but the situation works against you there and I think this is why he's available. Little to no department support as the school just cut eight programs and it was rumored that baseball was going to be one of them. (It wasn't, but that kind of financial situation can't have been a plus for the program, either.) Bakich probably won't pull in any top 25 classes like he did at Maryland, but the Big Ten offers a much easier path to the top than does the ACC, and our facilities stack up in the Big Ten much better than Maryland's in the ACC.

As I commented on the front-page item, lack of support at Maryland was certainly a factor in Bakich's interest in the Michigan job, but money was likely a big factor too. Bakich was making only a little over $100K at Maryland, and Brandon has reportedly offered him $400K+ per year, which evidenly would make him the highest-paid coach in the Big Ten.

WADR, you really have to understand the enormous, gigantic suck hole he was handed before you bag on his record. I know I took a slightly skeptical tone in my first paragraph above, but the flip side of the coin is that Maryland is historically a really, really terrible baseball team that hasn't been to the NCAAs since 1971, and only three times in their history. I thought they should've done better this year given their recruiting, but anyone holding the first couple years of his record against him doesn't really have a grasp of the shit sandwich he was handed when he took the job.

You have to look at it in context of the school and it's history and tradition.....or lack thereof. As has already been stated, this last seasons was Maryland's SECOND winningest season of all time. Yeah, that's right, second. And they barely finished above .500. His 10-20 ACC record was only the second time in the last since 1973 that they've had double digit conference wins. The .333 winning % in conference was only the third time that the program has had .300 or above winning % in conference since 1993. So basically, Maryland is to ACC baseball what Duke is to ACC football - historically bad.

From reports, he's an awesome recruiter and young and motivated. Throw in that he won't face the competition he was facing regularly in the ACC (one of the top 4 conferences in college baseball year in and year out) and has ties to the MW and it seems like it was a good choice. Time will tell, but I think that you have to recognize that he at least knows what he is doing and recognize that he had a traditionally wretched program heading in the right direction. Otherwise you're just being ignorant.

For a' that, an' a' that,
Our toils obscure an' a' that,
The rank is but the guinea's stamp,
The man's the gowd for a' that.

My friend is a Maryland grad, baseball broadcaster, and close follower of his alma mater's baseball team. Here were his thoughts:

Wow, you swiped an up and coming coach. Maryland got Bakich from Vanderbilt where he was an assistant, where he recruited people like David Price. He made Maryland much stronger in his three years there, and really recruited well there. In fact, the Terps had problems of players would commit to Maryland, then get drafted and sign. That was his only problem really, the Terps took two of three from UCLA this season, a team that went to the CWS.

Maryland did not make it to the NCAAs, but I honestly feel one more year and the Terps would have gotten there. I have no doubt Maryland was on the verge of becoming a strong ACC power, but I don't blame Bakich for leaving Maryland for Michigan. You have a great coach coming to Ann Arbor, I just wish Maryland had a few more years with him.

I'm OK with it. His overall record isn't great and his conference record is pretty terrible, but the schedule was like really hard and it's a little interesting looking at it a little more in-depth.

First, Maryland lost 8 games by one run, 6 of which were conference games. Second, as noted, Maryland took 2 out of 3 fom UCLA (overall #2 seed), they also beat Purdue (regional #1 seed) 11-1 in one meeting, took one out of 3 from Virginia, North Carolina, Miami, and Florida State (UNC was overall #6 seed, FSU was overall #3 seed, UVA and Miami were both regional #1 seeds)) and 2 out of 3 from North Carolina State (regional #1 seed). Where they got in trouble in the ACC were being swept by Wake Forest (didn't make the tournament), losing 2 out of 3 against Boston College (didn't make tournament), losing 2 out of 3 against Va. Tech (didn't make tournament) and swept by Clemson (regional #2 seed) and

So, Maryland went 9-10 (6-9 ACC, 4-5 against Nationally seeded teams)) against regional #1 seeds in the tournament. I think that's actually pretty good. Maryland just only went 4-8 against ACC teams that didn't make the tournament at all. Which is not good at all. Seems to me like Maryland did a lot of playing to their competition. But one game under .500 agains the top 16 teams in the country, at a school with precisely 3 seasons with at least 30 wins (including this most recent one) which isn't even a ton of wins for a good baseball school (no seasons with 40+ wins), is really impressive to me. As for his ACC mark, a .333 winning percentage is pretty atrocious, but it's also the schools' best record in the ACC (tied with 2009) since 1985.

Combine that with the recruiting and the fact that he does have the head coaching experience, and I think it's a very, very solid hire. Not spectacular. But certainly solid.

I understand the disadvantage northern teams seem to have, but Michigan's success in softball, which seems to have the same disadvantages, makes me think a northern team should be able to put together a decent baseball team.

This is really analagous to the "Pat White was a two-star" argument. The softball food chain looks a lot like the baseball one. Michigan has a very good team but not a great one. You look at the WCWS and it looks a lot like the men's one in Omaha. 16 regional seeds and only two northern ones and those were Pac-12 teams in areas with mild winters. Etc etc. The answer to your question about why is softball so good is because the need to have only one really good pitcher changes the program-building equation significantly. In other words Michigan's softball success really isn't proof that it's just as easy in baseball.

He's a very highly regarded recruiter from his days at Vandy bring in the #1 class in 2005 and #2 in 2008. He was successful every year in that regard. And Marylands record improved every year. I like this hire a lot.

Re: The Stricklin quotes. Given his record and the buzz, it is perfectly credible that we did, indeed, "come calling" and he turned us down.

But in general, we should have a healthy skepticism about any coach who claims to have been contacted or who the media says is in the running for a particular job.

An AD friend of mine, having just completed a national search for a coach in a D1 revenue sport, reported that it was remarkable the number of "candidates" who were reported by the media, including personal claims by the coach (or his colleagues) that there had been contact made, or they were "in talks." Said AD ran the search and made all the contacts, and he said some of the claims were absolute, flat-out, bald-faced, pants-on-fire lies. I guess it is not uncommon because they can get away with it, and it's a great benefit to have folks think you are in demand but also loyal person who didn't leave despite the keen interest shown by someone else.